Tag Archives: Fanny Rodwell

Update:Roger Leloup has confirmed us that he did not work on the page Bob De Moor created for the Jo & Zette version of the “Thermozéro” album.

Last year the news popped up that the unreleased Tintin album “Thermozéro” with a scenario by Greg would get a release after all. Back then we hinted at the possible inclusion of the pages drawn by Bob De Moor for the Jo & Zette version of this aborted story. However, things seem to turn out differently now that Benoît Mouchart, editorial director at Casterman has announced in a post on his Facebook profile that the publication of this much wanted story is put on hold. Mouchart: “Nous discutons depuis deux ans et demi avec Fanny et Nick Rodwell, mais aussi Didier Platteau, pour que cette histoire paraisse… Pour le moment, c’est repoussé sine die. Wait and see…” (English: “We have been talking for two and a half years now with Fanny and Nick Rodwell , but also with Didier Platteau , so that album could be published… For the moment, it is pushed back indefinitely. Wait and see …”) For the good understanding, Didier Plateau co-created Les Éditions Moulinsart together with Fanny and Nick Rodwell.

We won’t hide our disappointment because this is a project that is a very interesting one, not only because there’s a lot to be told concerning the genesis of the storyboard, but also because “Thermozéro” had undergone several transitions. From being a Tintin album, it was later on pitched to be a Jo & Zette album drawn by Bob De Moor and this after Hergé had dropped the Tintin version. It’s fairly possible that also Roger Leloup (Yoko Tsuno) has been working on the cars for the Jo & Zette version just like he did on the first pages of the Tintin version of “Thermozéro” of which a picture (showing Leloup at work) can be seen on the left. The frame is taken from this video.

In the archives of the De Moor family we stumbled on a few pages in different stages of development. Today we present you 2 versions of the opening page. In the 2 versions you can see several differences which we will describe one by one.

The first thing that struck us was the TV scene on top of the 2 pages. When checking the first page you’d think it’s just a doodle, but the same TV scene pops up in a later version which seems to indicate it was to be part of the original page, or was it meant as the heading for a Tintin Journal publication? You’ll also notice the visual similarity with the tabloid journalist in the “Les Bijoux de la Castafiore” album (page 22 in the album).

The first frame is of course more elaborated in the later version, however none of the surroundings were added, just the cars (by Bob De Moor this time and not by Roger Leloup). The 2nd frame has a car put more in the foreground (a Renault front with a Citroën Ami back it seems almost). The 3rd frame has a change in gesture of the moustached tourist, probably to avoid that the same arm pose would be repeated 3 times in a row. In the 6th frame, De Moor went for a less higher position, again probably to avoid too much repetition.

Let’s see if we will get a book in the same style as the excellent “Hergé et les Bigotudos” by Philippe Goddin in the foreseeable future after all (before we are all too old to read it).

Since Bob De Moor wanted to complete the unfinished “Tintin and Alph-Art” album, but was refused to do so in the end, we thought that this particular newsbit might interest more than just one reader (and that’s probably an understatement).

Note: It’s not the intention to start posting Tintin news on this website, but when it’s relevant to Bob De Moor, we will.

The Belgian edition of Paris Match (8 – 14 May) has an interview with Fanny Rodwell, the wife of the late Hergé , and although it’s one of the very rare Fanny Rodwell interviews, it was as a direct hit. Yes, the interview is worthy of a headline that has already made it to the Belgian-French speaking Tintin world in record time, and will soon reach the English-speaking fans as well.

The interview, done by Emmanuelle Jowa, is quite an interesting read (and accompanied by rather nice pictures of Fanny Rodwell), although it’s mainly human interest-minded – it’s for Paris Match, after all. You’ll learn for instance that Fanny Rodwell eats meat while her husband Nick Rodwell is a ‘végétalien’. Yes, with an ‘l’, which means he is a die-hard vegetarian. Not really information one would call interesting. But after one page of more small talk, Fanny Rodwell says a few things which are more interesting, with the no-bomb falling on page 68.

“La veuve d’Hergé sort de l’ombre” – Paris Match 8-14/05/2014

Fanny Rodwell is very clear: there will be no new album of Tintin, not now, not in 2017, not in 2050, not in 2053 and not in 2054. In short, there will never again be a new Tintin album, “Out of the question” she even says further on in the interview when the journalist keeps insisting. However, that doesn’t exclude unfinished albums such as the “Thermozero”, of course, as we all know by now since that option is currently being studied by Moulinsart and Casterman.

It’s interesting to see that Fanny Rodwell is very laid back when it comes to the future of Tintin. Regarding possibly losing Tintin to the public domain she says: “That’s life, it’s like that. And anyway, I will no longer be alive by then.” She continues by saying that society might again have changed by then and “maybe Tintin will no longer be in the mind of the youngsters (…) he may be forgotten by then.”

From the interview we also learn that she has no info on when the next Tintin film by Steven Spielberg will be released and that she is pretty sure that the first film wasn’t a big commercial success “or Spielberg would have already started with the next one“. When asked who she considers to be as talented as Hergé she names Paul Cuvelier and Jacques Laudy.